4.2 Time for the Tower
Our party begins planning for their assault on the Tower of Apotheosis. While the Arch Bishop of Bartos raised worthwhile concerns over the trustworthiness of the Archivist, it was agreed that recovering the original stone used to summon the voidspawn was a goal they could all still work towards as Karhanza worked to verify some of the Archivists claims. The Archivist mentioned that it and therefore Cara, would need to accompany the party to identify the stone they would need. After some deliberation on the pros and cons of bringing Cara with them, the party put it to a vote, in the end deciding to bring Cara with them. However, because the Arch Bishop did not trust the Archivist, he demanded to come along as well. This was also agreed upon and the party was left to make their final preparations. While the Elfatina soared towards the fabled tower, Wrynn and the rest of the ascendant discussed with each other, trying to predict what the party should expect upon entry. Thain informed the party that Sajaina's pregnancy was progressing at a geometric rate, likely resulting in her giving birth by the end of the week. However, despite her showing very obvious signs of mid-term pregnancy, Thain suspected that she would have no loss of dexterity and that the bay would be harder to kill than she would. Perlapae, worrying over the potential consequences of Sajaina giving birth to a partially Laputian baby, began researching the possible side effects and counters of emergency procedures to save her life in the event she might suffer a Laputian-mother's death during pregnancy. Baygrith used his time to continue work on an enlarged version of his portal device, with some help from Sajaina. Timmeron spent time with his wife, but found a few moments to ask Wrynn to alter the illusion ring so that he could at least look like his old self. Sal played his music for Cara and tried to teach Flynn how to work some basic magic. Grukk brooded and Caerean practiced her swordsmanship. Travize flew down into the ocean to collect shark, whale, and squid forms in case he needed their versatility in the confrontation to come. Finally the time came for the group to ready themselves for the tower. Wrynn explained some of the tower's defenses, suggesting that the party should expect immediate magical attack upon entry. She had also devised several teleportation stones that would allow the party to teleport back to the ship if they needed to, but also created a master stone that would teleport all of them at once- which she gave to Baygrith who had the Anti-Magic cloak. As they prepared to go, the party turned to the issue of Thain, still under the control of Mui'thel. They again employed the Skein Of Soul Sight in conjunction with Dal's time-reversal to fill in missing information from his previous answer. Apparently- and grimly- his willingness to assist the party was contingent on it being unlikely to result in his death- and also working to his gain- unless Sajaina's body might be unrecoverable if he didn't go. Unaware of this drawing of information, Mui'thel listened calmly as Sajaina persuaded him to let the party borrow Thain. He agreed, but said he would call Thain back if he felt his own life was in danger. Finally the party cast their teleportation spell to enter the tower through back-doors in its defenses. But what they found awaiting them was destruction. The walls and floor were damaged, covered at every turn in signs of magical battle. As far as they could tell, some extremely powerful mage had worked its way into the tower by force. Probably. Exiting the foyer, they found their way blocked by a vortex of chaotic energy. Karhanza was able to dismantle it, but warned that the ripples might unleash strange effect- or even time loops. Wondering what on earth that might mean, the party pressed on. Soon, however, the party found themselves re-living their own deaths again and again as time twisted upon itself. The effect proved fortuitous, however, as they were able to use it to plot the safe course through the towers various traps, chaotic magics, and pathways until they finally found the location of three keys they needed to unlock a central door. Recovering the keys successfully seemed to wipe away the time-anomaly, opening a hallway of light the ascendant referred to as the “Hall of Knowledge.” The party had no idea precisely what the keys would open or where the hallway would lead but, with no other options presenting themselves, they took a few minutes to rest before they pressed on. Category:Quests